Are the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) and its affiliated colleges discriminating against students with disabilities? Parents allege so.
According to one parent, who requested anonymity, the KUHS offers no provisions or relief to students with disabilities and is an actively hostile environment for them.
No scribes or assistants during exams?
In a public note, the parent alleges that her daughter, who attends the KUHS-affiliated Government Medical College in Kottayam and other MBBS students with disabilities do not have any provision to help them manage their academics on campus, in light of their disabilities, and are expected to function like “normal” students.
This is especially affecting students whose disabilities hinder the use of their hands and their mobility, the parent says. She adds that her daughter, a second-year MBBS student who has cerebral palsy that left her right hand and leg paralysed and rendered her 50 per cent disabled, faces problems, particularly during examinations and practicals.
“My daughter is not naturally left-handed, and using her left hand to write for too long causes her pain and discomfort. However, students with disabilities are not allowed to have scribes during the exams,” the parent says.
In addition, they are also not allowed to have assistants to help them during the practical examinations — nor are students with disabilities allowed compensatory time, she adds.
Both the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) guidelines for conducting written examinations for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities, 2019 and the Kerala State Commissionerate for Persons with Disabilities Instructions (2020) for the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 mandate the provision of scribes and lab assistants to students with disabilities, and a compensatory time of not more than 20 minutes.
However, the parent alleges that KUHS did not implement them despite multiple requests by the parents, as the National Medical Commission (NMC) allegedly does not specify any such provisions.
When the student was granted permission for a scribe through an interim order by the Kerala High Court, the scribe could not understand medical jargon, and found it difficult to draw diagrams in the exam, says the parent.
According to the guidelines, the minimum qualification for exam scribes and lab assistants is a matriculation pass. The parent suggests that the guides must be qualified enough to understand medical terminology.
Unfriendly campuses?
In addition, the parent further alleges that the campus of GMC Kottayam is not very accessible for students with disabilities. “There are no ramps or wheelchairs on the campus, and the elevators are not reliable. Students like my daughter have to go around the campus on foot. With no provisions to make the campus more accessible to students with disabilities, wouldn’t it become difficult for them when they start their internships?” asks the parent.
The consequences of this lack of concessions for students with disability are felt in their academic lives as well, with the student failing to clear her Anatomy practicals in her first year as she did not have a lab assistant to help her, or leniency during the exam owing to her disability.
“Why must our children, who have to work harder than the rest to clear medical entrance exams end up enduring such humiliations? They could have pursued other courses, and would have even been placed by now,” the parent says.
This is the case for many students with disabilities at the university, parents allege.
Another parent, alleges that her daughter, a third-year student of GMC Kottayam with congenital myopathy, had also failed in her Anatomy internal exam in her first year, and Microbiology internal exam in her second year “without any grounds.”
“My daughter was good at her studies until now. This has caused her so much anguish that she has become a shell of her former self, and she is having to seek professional help to get her mental state back to normal,” she says.
Further, most of these students have exhausted the number of attempts they are allowed to clear the exam under the year back policy, that is, four times, due to the lack of these concessions even before they completed the MBBS course, say the parents.
In addition, they also allege that many professors and invigilators berate students with disabilities and their parents, and treat them with derision.
The parents say that they had submitted complaints to the State Disability Rights Commission, the State Human Rights Commission, the NMC, and the Chief Justice of India, and are awaiting action from them.
A larger problem?
Reacting to these allegations, disability rights activist Dr Satendra Singh says that parents cannot challenge the university on most of the grievances, especially those concerning the educational qualifications of the scribes/lab assistants and the year-back policy, as they are mandated by the NMC.
However, he adds that the university is bound to implement accessibility norms for students with disabilities laid down by the State government and UGC norms, and failing to do so would make them liable for penalty.
“Irrespective of whether the NMC has provisions for students with disabilities or not, medical colleges must implement the ones brought out by the UGC, as they are notified in the Gazette of India,” he says.
Dr Singh alleges that despite the existence of norms, several educational institutions do not implement them.
“A lot of medical colleges do not have the infrastructure and mechanisms to make their campuses more accessible for students with disabilities,” he says.
He explains, “Ideally, they should have wheelchairs and/or wheelchair-friendly infrastructure for easy mobility, and Equal Opportunities Cells and Enabling Units so that college administrations can understand each student’s extent and type of disability and make necessary accommodations for them.”
Further, he alleges that when the Medical Council of India (the predecessor of the NMC) issued a notice to all medical colleges and institutions to submit reports of their compliance with the (then) Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 based on his complaints, KUHS was one of the only medical educational institutions that failed to do so.
“It is sad to see that an institution like KUHS, instead of leading the way in making medical education disability-friendly, is harassing students,” Dr Singh says.
The official word
Meanwhile, all these allegations have been denied by Dr Mohanan Kunnummal, Vice-Chancellor, KUHS.
“Students with disabilities can approach our university board in case of any grievances, and we see to it that they are resolved,” he says.
He further adds that the university also provides concession time for students with disabilities during examinations, depending on their needs.